Cognitive: Experimental Key Terms Flashcards
What is an Independent Variable?
The variable that the experimenter changes
What is a dependent variable?
The variable that the experimenter measures/manipulates
What is meant by Operationalisation?
Making the IV and DV measurable
What is a null hypothesis?
The experimenter predicts the IV will have no effect on the DV/ no significant effect will be found
What is an alternative / experimental hypothesis?
The experimenter predicts the IV will have an effect on the DV/ a significant effect will be found
What is a one-tailed hypothesis?
The experimenter knows what type of effect will occur
e.g. the results will be lower in category A
What is a two-tailed hypothesis?
There will be an effect, but the experimenter doesn’t know what way it will go
(e.g. there will be an effect, but we don’t know if it will go higher or lower)
What are extraneous variables?
Factors related to the participants/environment the researcher must try to control so only the IV affects the DV
What are situational variables?
Factors related to the situation that affects participants/ the DV
What are confounding variables?
Factors other than the IV that affect the DV.
What are demand characteristics?
When participants are acting a certain way as they believe it will fit the experimenters’ aim/ what they think they want
What are experimenter effects?
How the experimenters may influence participants’ behaviour
What are order effects?
When the performance of participants gets better or worse over time. This is a problem as only the IV should affect the DV
What are practice effects?
As participants become more practiced at the task, they do better over time
What are fatigue effects?
Over time, participants become more bored + tired, and so do worse at the task
